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Monday, July 18, 2011

Dan’s Gaming Stream: From My Eyes (Part 1)

This is the story of me starting my stream from my point of view.

There is always a feeling of nervousness and excitement when you look at your freshly created channel. “This could be the start of something big,” you think to yourself. With zero followers, zero views, and no live viewers, you know that you will never see everything zeroed out again. This is the last moment before you finally become a broadcaster.

“A broadcaster” you think to yourself admiring the sound of it. You always have loved video games your entire life, relishing each dramatic moment and absorbing every line of dialogue. These games have always provided you with a sense of escape from your life allowing you to live through the experiences of these characters. In what other medium can you build a kingdom as a pharaoh, defeat the king of the gods, or save the princess in the eighth castle? These stories were always so much better than your own.

“What kind of Broadcaster do I want to be?” you think to yourself. It’s best to decide how you will take your journey before you start walking. “I guess that I want to be a broadcaster that doesn’t focus on viewer counts, but exposing the world to games that I feel are worth being seen. I’m not the most outspoken or charismatic person so I don’t expect to be very popular but I will be myself as that is all I can be. Whether I have one viewer or a thousand, I want to vow to always be the same person and not compromise who I am. I always want to make the stream as good as it can be and will never be satisfied. There is always room for improvement” You have decided the type of broadcaster you are and feel a little more comfortable about stepping forward.

What about the stream? What sort of channel will your channel be known for? “I will always play the largest variety of quality games. I want the channel to be known for always being something different, ever changing, and ever evolving. I will never let the fear not getting a high view count ever deter me from playing a game that I feel deserves recognition. By playing a large variety of games I hope to draw a large variety of people into the channel and expose them to games they never would have thought to play. If even one person decides to pick up and play a game they never had any interest in playing before than I have done my job. I hope to someday have hardcore shooter fans, adventure gamers, platformer fanatics, etc. all in the same place interacting with each other. I will provide the anchor, but I never want to center of topic and discussion to be me. I want a community to build around this channel that would be about gamers chatting and learning from other gamers.”

Finally the ground work and foundation of the channel is set. You have figured out who you are, what your goal of the channel is, set up your software, and designed your channel. There is only one thing left to do: push that broadcast button and begin your first broadcast. Silent hill 2 is starting, the stream is functional, and your heart starts pumping. After playing the game for a couple hours you can’t help but notice that the viewer count has never risen the entire time. You try to reassure yourself that it’s only your first broadcast and it should be expected, but that feeling of doubt and anxiety creep into the back of your mind. You know you shouldn’t worry about that viewer count… but it’s sitting there looming at you. “What am I doing wrong?” you ask yourself. “All my plans will go to waste if I don’t even have a single viewer.”

All the dreams of what your channel would be start to slowly seem more and more unreachable. Without viewers, the entire dream implodes on itself. “If I’m all the way on the last page, I will never get viewers and this entire idea of mine will fade away.” The feeling of sadness and anger start to join the party. All of a sudden a thought entered your mind that you didn’t take into account before. Four Player Podcast, Swiftor, and Hot Blooded Gaming all started in the same place that you are now. Each of them started with no viewers and no followers. What did they have that you didn’t? The answer was simple: time and dedication. They have invested years of their lives into building up their channels and communities so what gives you the audacity to assume that you will suddenly do the same thing over night.

With this thought in mind, you decided to keep on streaming and viewers would come with time just as it did with every streamer. You will not let no or low viewer counts ever stop you.

**This concludes Part 1, be sure to follow the blog to read part 2 when it’s released**

nice story! you deserved it Dan I can't think of another person who would have deserved it more. Keep it going until your hair gets grey (Kappa) - you are by far my favourite streamer ! You cheer up my evenings, thank you for that :)